The sorbent material made of silkworm cocoon waste (SCWS)
showed awater-repellent nature (Fig. 1c), and floated on thewater.
The buoyancy tests showed, after 15min in purified and marine
water, that the majority of the material remained at the surface of
water and there was no much of settling of the sorbent under both
static and dynamic conditions. By placing SCWS on the oil surface,
the material sorbed oil and changed from a flocculent fiber to a
gelatinous semisolid (Fig. 1d). The results of the oil removal by the
SCWS from purified water containing 10 g of the motor and vegetable
oil are shown in Fig. 2. The sorption rate of the motor oil and
the vegetable oil by the SCWS were not significantly different.